​

Hands on her hips, chest puffed out, Kayla breathed in the fresh air. This was it! Her journey was finally on its way, and it all started here on Route 2.

Mom and Dad had been there at her graduation ceremony to congratulate her and give her wishes of good luck. Honestly, it was surprising to her that they were being so supportive on this. After all, her father had been so persistent on Kayla taking over the family business once she came of age. Nonetheless she was too thrilled by the prospect of this adventure to start questioning such things.

Most of her fellow trainers that had just graduated from the trainer academy with her had already scattered around the route, but the young woman wanted to make sure not to rush anything. After all, there's only one first day of an adventure.

She stayed behind on the cobblestone bridge connecting Aquacorde Town to the route, from here she could take in all the sights and sounds. Children running around battling one another, wild pokemon frolicking around in the patches of grass, the sounds of Poliwags crying out in anger and pain, and the singing chirps of Pidgeys and Fletchlings. Wait... one of these was not like the other.

Kayla whipped her head around in the direction of the Poliwags' cry. From her vantage point on the bridge she could see two fishermen sailing along the river in a rather raggedy old boat. Inside the little ship she spotted the source of the noise she had heard. A number of Poliwag had been reeled in by the two brutes and they weren't being caught or released back into the wild, they were just thrown into a tangled mess of a net on the deck of the boat.

The sight made Kayla's blood boil. Just as she was about to make a move, one of the little creatures escaped the holds of the net and shot a forceful blast of water at one of the men.

"AGH! What the hell!?" The fisherman recoiled back in surprise. As he stepped backwards to get away from the jet of water, he slipped over the side of the ship, landing into the river with a loud splash.

Watching the scenario unfold made Kayla burst out into a fit of giggles and she was almost ready to move on until she saw the remaining fisher rear back with his fishing rod and slam it into the rebellious Poliwag.

"Oh, hell no."

Now there was no holding her back. The young woman leaped from the bridge onto the boat, aiming her legs directly at the defenseless man.

Kayla used High Jump Kick. It was super effective!

The fisherman was sent reeling to the other side of the boat and would've been sent flying off the side if he hadn't grabbed onto the ledge.

"What the hell was that for?!" The man cried out as he pulled himself back aboard.

"It was for that Poliwag 'ya piece of Ponyta dung!" Kayla exclaimed, her face almost reaching the same color as her hair. She threw out her lone poke-ball releasing Richie, the Chimchar she had received only a couple hours before. "Alright Richie, use scratch on that net and get those Poliwags free for me." The starter pokemon looked at his trainer, gave a quick nod, scratching at the net until all the captive Poliwag were free.

The trainer gave a smile to the freed pokemon. "You guys are free to go now." However, in contrast to Kayla's look of joy the expressions on the Poliwag's faces could only be surmised as... pissed off. The pokemons' outcries of anger became even louder than they had before and now they were directed towards Kayla, Richie, and the fisherman.

She had seen this look a couple times before on the familiy's breeding grounds. This was the look of a pokemon who at the moment was beyond reconciliation, it was pissed off and ready to strike.

"Oh geez..." Kayla's expression changed to one of exasperation. "I was the one trying to help you guys..." Her voice trailed off as the angry mob of Poliwag inched ever closer to the trainer and her fire type pokemon.

As the two were backed into the corner of the boat, the trainer gave a discontented sigh. "Well I guess there's no getting out of this one. We're gonna have to defend ourselves."

Much as Drew loved watching lakes, rivers, oceans and other natural bodies of water, he had a job to do, and his search so far had been an uneventful one. He couldn't have looked the least bit sane holding a cracked egg shell in the water hoping for pokemon to stop by and take a sniff. Maybe the water had already washed away the scent and he was chasing a lost cause. If not for the urgency of the task at hand, Drew probably would've been patient enough to wait it out. In this situation though, time was not on his side. It was against his nature in every way, but he'd have to take matters into his own hands. If the shell was too far away, he'd have to bring it closer.

After tossing his hoodie aside, and tying his T-shirt around his waist to keep his pokeballs secure, he dove into the water, holding the egg shard out in front of him. Despite his best efforts at shoving the shell in the face of any Buizel that happened to swim by, the pokemon took no interest in the egg itself. It was honestly starting to seem like a fruitless endeavor. Maybe he would've been better off foraging for berries.

While lost in his thought, Drew seemed to be dragged back by his waist. Somehow, his T-shirt had managed to get clamped into some strange contraption; but what were traps doing in the bottom of Aquacorde canal? In spite of his best efforts, Drew couldn't break free before being unwittingly caught up in some strange entanglement. A net? His eyes flushed wide at the thought. He hadn't resurfaced in a while, and he was far from an expert at holding his breath underwater. His immediate apprehension quickly turned to terror, as the net continued to drag across the canal floor.

"****!" The Fisherman cried as he followed behind his partner and tumbled out of his boat behind the force of the girl's kick. Both men were able to regain their bearings quickly enough, and the grinding halt the boat seemed to come to made it easy for them to grab back on.

The sudden shift in the boat left Kayla and the rest of the pokemon reeling. She and Richie grabbed onto the ledge while the angry mob of Poliwag were sent flying around the rest of the boat. "What the hell was that?!" she exclaimed as she regained her footing.

Her eyes quickly scanned over the surface of the small ship, and found some sort of contraption connected to a net submerged under the water. Wasting no time, the young woman hastily ran over to the mechanism and pulled what she presumed to be a trapped pokemon onto the deck of the boat. Only to find... a teenage boy?

Drew collapsed over the side of the boat, trying to cough up all of the water that had filled his lungs. It took him a while to pull himself together, and finally gain the strength to push himself at least to his hands and knees. What he saw upon opening his eyes...a very angry set of pokemon. He couldn't even reach for his pokedex, since he'd left it down stream along with his hoodie. Thankfully, the pokemon didn't seem particularly angry at anything in particular, or at least, they might not have noticed him yet. slightly more to his left, two guys climbing into the boat? He had no idea what the hell had happened here, but it didnt seem like the kind of situation he wanted to be a part of. "What kind of *cough* asshole would do something like this?" His mused in between coughs.

"Apparently those two assholes over there." Kayla gave a beaming smile. The teenage boy that she had fished up out of the water was none other than her pseudo-younger brother favorite play thing Drew Tucker. She ruffled up the younger trainer's hair and gave him a small pat on the back. "I'd love to give you a hug, my dear, but unfortunately you seem to have gotten yourself quite wet." She pulled out a handkerchief out her bag and handed it to the boy. "You poor thing, use this to dry up as much as you can."

Drew's faced turned to a rather defeated scowl in response to the familiar condescending tone of Kayla Calloway. That was as good an explanation he needed as to how this scenario came to be, and somehow he'd landed in the mess of it. He had little time to dwell on the short lived reunion, as the weight of the boat shifted again, with the first of the fishermen clambering in. The shaking caught the attention of several of the onlooking Poliwag who had already lost their tempers, but now they had somewhere to direct it. He glanced up at Kayla, hoping that she would take the lead in this situation.

"You little *****, you're gonna pay for that." The fisherman grunted, flicking his head to rid of the water dripping from his hat.

"Who, me?" Kayla's expression changed to one of mock indignation. "Come make me pay, you worthless sack of ****."

"Y-you're gonna fight him?" Drew intervened, paranoid at the confrontation between the duo.

"I will, as long as he's man enough to do it." The young woman said, sticking her tongue out at the two fishermen across from them.

"Why you little..." The man that Kayla had nearly kicked off the boat looked as if he were angry enough to charge over and attack. Both men pulled out a single poke-ball. "You asked for this, little lady." They simultaneously threw their poke-balls releasing a goldeen and chinchou respectively.

Kayla gave a confident grin, even if on the inside she groaned. Why did she have the worst luck in the world? She was confident that Richie's thunder punch, combined with his iron fist ability would be able to take out some water types without a hitch, but of course she would be matched up against a water type that has the volt absorb ability.

She grabbed Drew by the shoulders and placed him standing next to her. "You boys weren't trying to make this a two on one situation were you?" She gave them a slight wink.

"Wha...I can-" Drew began before being cut short. He hadn't been in a proper battle before, and while they had all only just graduated that very morning, Drew had no idea what kind of experience Kayla may have had with other pokemon. What if he couldn't hold his own and let his teammate down? Was it her fault for throwing him in this situation?

"Drew, my dear boy, please do me a favor and help me take out these pieces of trash. Don't you worry I have all sorts of... experience." The older trainer whispered suggestively into the boy's ear.

"R-right. I'll do my best." He responded firmly, doing his best to sound reassured. Kayla's choice of wording, coupled with the way she said it was enough to throw the unhinged Drew off even more. He clutched onto the pokeball, that had been tightly wrapped up in his makeshift T shirt belt, and pressed the button. This was going to be his first battle. It was an unusual one, but a win would do him the world of good. "Brycen, you're up!" He yelled, tossing the ball onto the area where the other pokemon where already primed for battle.

"Goldeen, peck!" The first fisherman commanded, wasting no time in sending his pokemon after the less confident of the two trainers.

"Uhh...umm...Brycen, Tackle." Drew responded hesitantly. The Chespin glanced back at his trainer, unsure if the decision was really the best course of action, but followed through anyway. The peck dealing super effective damage to the grass type pokemon. Drew glanced remorsefully at Kayla, before quickly returning his eyes to the battle to seem as though he was focused.

As Kayla watched the rather unfortunate scene unfold, she realized that perhaps taking on two veteran trainers with herself and a fellow rookie wasn't such a brilliant idea. She gave a reassuring nudge to Drew and whispered. "You're doing just fine." before giving instructions to her own pokemon.

"Alright Richie, use Thunder Punch on that Goldeen!" The Chimchar nodded enthusiastically, jumping towards the flopping fish pokemon and landing a direct strike. It certainly looked like an effective shot, but the pokemon was still standing. flopping

Before anyone else could respond, the remaining trainer called out orders to his pokemon. "Chinchou, use Bubble!" A stream of bubbles floated out towards the fire typed Richie popping all around him.

Kayla grimaced, knowing the strong type disadvantage that she was in. "Does your pokemon know any grass type moves?" She asked, nudging her teammate.

"Uhhh...Ummm.." Drew mused, patting himself down in search for his pokedex. His failure to find the device, left him with no more than a nervous smile and a shrug to offer Kayla.

She gave him a reassuring smile in response, but inwardly groaned. How does he not even know the moves of his first pokemon?! She returned her focus to the battle field and was about to call out to Richie when an angry Poliwag slammed itself into the opponent's Goldeen.

Kayla started to giggle until another Poliwag ran towards Richie and shot a stream of water at the Chimchar. And another attacked the opposing Chinchou, and another attacked Drew's Chespin.

"Little pests! You damn kids caused this." The fisherman groaned, as his pokemon took time to recover. "We need to clear out these damn poliwags. Goldeen Supersonic!" He boomed, prompting his pokemon to do the same. Drew noticed the the fisherman taking action against the hostile poliwags, and decided to join him.

"Brycen...Tackle?" The grass type glanced back at his trainer with a bored expression. Was he really expecting him to use tackle again? With a sigh, Brycen caught an incoming Poliwag and tossed it at a horde of others with a vine whip. "Th-that was a tackle?" Drew blinked in shock.

"You gotta get more in touch with your friend there." Kayla winked at both Brycen and his trainer. Brycen gave an assured nod in response, before glancing over at the aforementioned Drew, who seemed bewildered by the whole occasion. "Good to know you can use that move though." She once again turned her attention towards the incoming assault of Poliwag.

"Alright, Richie hit 'em with a thunder punch!" The Chimchar gave a quick nod and slammed an electrified fist into one of the Poliwag's snouts.

The projectile Poliwag that bounced off of Richie's fist, collided with an anonymous orange object that sat amongst the crowd. The object slowly grew, rising from the sea of angry Poliwag's. The Pokemon had a yellow ring, which hung down the length of its back, and two orange dots on it's back. It almost resembled a Buizel, in a way.

"Flo" The pokemon grunted, towering of the minuscule figures of the Poliwag. With water now encasing its being, it charged head first at the fishermen Goldeen, knocking it straight into the water. Having already taken a heavy hit from Richie, the water type was immediately knocked out cold.

"Y-you know what this thing is?" Drew stuttered, again looking to Kayla for reassurance. His outburst caught the pokemon's attention, as it began making its way toward him.

Kayla's mind raced trying to remember what type of Pokemon this was. She hadn't seen many of them, but she knew for certain that there had been at least a couple on the family's breeding ranch.

"Floatzel!" She exclaimed as she finally remembered the identity of the orange pokemon. The rookie trainer pulled out her poke-dex which confirmed her thoughts. "Floatzel, the Sea Weasel Pokemon. It floats using its well developed flotation sac. It assists in the rescue of drowning people."

"Floatzel, huh? Name kinda sounds like...and looks like...a Buizel?" He grabbed the egg, and held it out for the Floatzel to sniff. While hesitant, the Sea Weasel approached Drew slowly, before dodging a supersonic from the fisherman's Chinchou.

The pokemon responded with a fierce hiss. Despite remaining intimidating, the Poliwag seemed to have lost their fear of the Floatzel. Seemingly overtaken by a mob mentality, the Poliwag turned on the Floatzel aswell.

"Hey! The Floatzel's just an innocent bystander here!" Kayla shouted towards the Chinchou's trainer. As the Poliwag were distracted with the newly arrived pokemon, she redirected her attention towards the fisherman's pokemon. "Drew, you take care of that Floatzel and help out with all those Poliwag. Me and Richie will take care of this scumbag."

It was definitely an unfavorable match up for her, a fire type facing off against a water-electric. It was especially disconcerting that her trump card was completely nullified by her opponent's ability. I guess I'll just have to make do.

"Alright, Richie hit that thing with a leer!" The look on the monkey pokemon's face changed from its normal cute expression to one that could make a child burst into tears. The Chinchou was obviously shaken up, which meant that the moves effects were successful.

"Okay, now use scratch!" Wasting no time on the follow up attack, Richie leapt at his opponent, raking his claws upon the body of his foe. The Chinchou recoiled backwards, obviously in considerable amounts of pain. The defensive drop caused by the leer had definitely done quite a bit, but the battle wasn't over just yet.

While the battle played out, Drew and Brycen wasted no time in helping the Floatzel clear out the boat. The wild pokemon glanced at the trainer and his grass type companion with uncertainty, but Drew simply responded with an assuring nod. The team of Floatzel and Chespin were enough to either intimidate of clear out most of the remaining Poliwag, sending them packing. One sole Poliwag stood however, not resillient, not courageous nor valiant, but hiding behind some leftover nets. The Floatzel's glare focused on it, but Drew was quick to call it off. He walked over, and held his hand out for the small blue pokemon.

"You dont seem as ticked off as the rest." He chuckled, kneeling to face the Poliwag and possibly ease its nerves. It didnt work. As soon as Drew got close, the pokemon darted through the legs of the young trainer, past Floatzel and Chespin, through the ongoing battle, to take shelter behind Kayla's legs. "Hey, I did-" Drew called out as he watched the small pokemon shuffle away. He sighed in defeat, before realising just how tired he was, and slumping against the wall of the boat.

Kayla was just about to call Richie on the Poliwag that had ran over to her, but realized this one wasn't quite like the others. The Fisherman on the other hand, wasn't so caring. He called his Chinchou to fire an electro ball, but Brycen was quick to jump in the way and take the attack. He glanced back to ensure it hadn't been hurt. It didnt seem to care for his protection though, it seemed that instead of attacking her, the little creature was cowering behind Kayla.

"Come here, you poor thing." she said as she scooped up the pokemon in her arms. "Everything'll be fine after I teach this man some proper fishing etiquette." She placed the Poliwag on top of her head with a giggle. "You'll be safe up here until the fights over."

Once again shifting her focus back towards her opponent, Kayla surveyed the situation. The leer had been keeping her in this battle, but the constant onslaught of water typed moves had left Richie unable to consistently reach his target without taking out a chunk of his health. He could probably only take two more shots before fainting. But fortunately enough, the opponent's Chinchou also looked close to being finished off as well.

It's all or nothing now. The rookie trainer, reinvigorated by the little pokemon sitting atop her head, called out instructions to Richie. "Hit that thing with one more scratch!"

The Chimchar gave a determined nod, understanding what his trainer was asking of him. It was strange, they had only met a couple hours ago, but they already seemed to share a close connection with one another. He pounced forward, knowing full and well what was coming next.

"Chinchou use bubble beam!" Almost in sync with the words, a stream of bubbles streamed out the pokemon's mouth towards the oncoming fire type.

There wasn't any way for Richie to dodge, so he continued to charge forward, enduring the splashing bubbles around him. He was almost there, just one last push. He leapt forward one last time, rearing back his claws to strike, and....

The bubbles stopped, and Richie's momentum took him for only a few more steps, before he went crashing to the...shoulder? His vision was blurred, but he could see a green figure retracting what looked like vines, the same figure that seemed to be holding him up. The chimp hung on, thankful for the grass pokemon's support.

"Pin?" Brycen enquired with clear concern in his tone and expression. A red beam of light caught the airborne Chinchou. A beam of light that seemed to be getting further and further away. Drew couldnt help but laugh, as he watched the fishermen fleeing the scene. While he was distracted, Floatzel had managed to sniff out the egg shell he was carrying, and seemed to be obsessed with the fragment.

"Yours, huh?" Drew beamed, glad to have found something he didn't think he'd find. Floatzel's curiosity quickly turned to adamant determination. "Dont worry, I know where he is. I'll lead you to him." Drew said, reassuring the Water type.

Kayla gave Brycen a thankful nod before she took her Chimchar into her arms. "I'm so sorry for making you do such a stupid thing. I shouldn't have let you take a hit like that." Her eyes started to well up as the heat of the battle cooled down into thoughts of remorse.

Richie gave a weak shake of his head and gave her a reassuring look, letting her know that he knew full and well what he was getting himself into.

The young woman smiled back at her pokemon and took out her pokeball. "It's time you have yourself a well deserved rest." She tapped the ball onto his forehead, bringing him back inside the capsule.

As she was wiping her tears away, she noticed the unnatural weight that was being put upon her neck and shoulders. She reached up and picked up the little Poliwag perched atop her head. "I almost forgot about you." Kayla said as she placed the pokemon on the deck of the ship. "The battle is over, you're safe to go now. Those stupid fishers probably won't be back for a while."

The Poliwag just sat there staring at her meekly. "Go on now, I'm sure your friends are all waiting for you." Kayla reassured, slowly shooing away the pokemon, but for every step that the Poliwag took towards the river, it took double towards the trainer.

She gave the pokemon a bewildered look. "Why aren't you rushing back like all your friends did? Don't you want to go home?" In response the Poliwag vigorously shook its head back and forth.

Kayla, a bit taken aback, went through the possibilities of what the pokemon wanted and came across a solution that might benefit both parties. "Do you want to come with me?"

This time the Poliwag vigorously nodded its head up and down.

"Well why didn't you say so?!" Kayla exclaimed with a beaming smile. She scooped up the pokemon and wrapped it in her arms. "You're just the most adorable thing I've ever seen."

"Hmm... What should your name be?" She held up the Poliwag and looked at it for a couple seconds. "You look like an Eli." She grinned and pulled the pokemon back in for another hug. "Eli it is."

She took out one of the pokeballs given to her at the graduation and tapped it on the Eli's forehead. "Welcome to the team, buddy."

With both her starter and newly caught pokemon secured in their pokeballs, Kayla stopped to look around the ship. It was an ol' dinged up piece of junk and there didn't seem to be much of value on it, however, she spotted something that the two fishermen had left behind.

"Hey Drew check this out!" She called over her shoulder.

Drew's head bounced up at the mention of his name. He did his best to recover from the weary state he'd fallen into.

"Hmmm?" He yawned, staggering up to see whatever it was Kayla was looking at. He stopped when he laid eyes on the discovery. In his eyes, this was probably better than treasure. Four fishing rods! Abandoned. His tired expression was completely overtaken by a childish grin. The grin, slowly built into excited laughter, until the point he was practically celebrating at the sight of the rods. "This is awesome! I can fish whenever I want! Kayla...I..." He paused to consider just how to word what he wanted to say. "Thanks." He smiled, doing his best not to sound completely soppy, despite still swooning over his new found fishing rods.

The younger trainer's sudden adorable burst of excitement brought a warm smile to Kayla's face. This time, disregarding the fact that she'd get wet, she pulled Drew in for a tight hug. "No problemo little guy."

Drew flinched in response to Kayla's response. Along with the reflexive response, he made a short squeaking noise as he was dragged against his will. While he was used to being annoyed with Kayla treating him like a kid, there was something different about this time. It was as if he almost...missed it? He sighed. Normally he probably would've just accepted the hug since he had no other choice, but this time he decided to hug back. The last time it happened couldn't have been that long ago.

"I guess I get two and you get two." She said as she picked up a pair of the old rods, without waiting for confirmation. "Well then I'll be on my way, I want to train up Eli and Richie a little bit. Thanks for all your help, kiddo!" Kayla ruffled up Drew's hair one more time before leaping off the ship and heading off to explore the rest of the route.

The sentiment of the moment feeling 'different' was quickly sent packing as she ruffled his hair. As Kayla disappeared onto route two, Drew turned, and let out a tired yawn, before seeing Brycen and Floatzel appear into his line of sight.

"Damn." He sighed, realising his day was still far from over.